Chapter Text
“What’s all this for?” Andrew asks upon returning from the kitchen to a rather lavish setup of glasses on the table.
“Celebration, of course! I’d picked this up on our last trip into town. Do you indulge in libations?” Luca asks, presenting a bottle of choice Scotch to the grave keeper.
“...Nothing wrong with a good drink, especially if it’s good whiskey.”
“Good answer.” Luca pops open the bottle and pours them both glasses of the decadent amber liquid. “Can you believe it’s been three months since I’ve arrived here? The time’s just flew by,”
“Has it been, already?” Andrew accepts the drink from the inventor graciously.
The time has indeed flown by.
Without knowing it, he’d become accustomed to Luca’s presence. Seeing signs of life in the house that weren’t just his own; finding company in even the most mundane of outings. Luca’s priority was his invention, but on the days off he developed an interest in accompanying Andrew anyway.
Luca had continued to ask about the manor, and Andrew had told him all of it—a truthful narrative, apart from a careful omission of the details that were too unimportant or painful to recount.
It had been disconcerting at first, seeing Luca not having even a glimmer of recollection in the first month, then going onto the second and the third the same. But they had formed somewhat of an amicable coexistence that Andrew can’t imagine doing without.
“I’ve decided to obtain a patent for my newest invention,” Luca announces. “The world isn’t aware of the discovery of the Radio yet, but when it does, the invention will be credited to yours truly,”
“That’s...this is great news. Congratulations, Luca.”
Andrew means it. Luca had worked hard on his invention, night after night, to finally achieve the breakthrough he’d been hoping for.
“It’s not the first patent I’ve submitted, but it’s special to me. I only was able to do this with your help, Andrew. So I’d like to propose a toast to you, my dear collaborator!” Luca grins jubilantly, extending his glass out to Andrew. He touches his glass against Luca’s and follows suit in downing the liquor, feeling its warm burn slip down his throat.
“While the patenting my device is underway here, I’ve been encouraged to start the process over in America as well.” Luca adds with a swirl of his drink. “I’ll be boarding a ship for the Americas at the end of this month. The tickets have been purchased and the travel plans have all been arranged,”
Andrew splutters. “R-Right. The Americas...”
It had slipped Andrew’s mind, really. Or perhaps, he’d refrained from thinking about it.
“That’s...soon.”
“I agree that it’s sudden, but it’s undoubtedly important for the invention to be protected by patent as soon as possible. Internationally, as well. The last thing I’d want would be gatekeeping the knowledge of my discoveries. At the same time, I still want to prevent those with unscrupulous motives from undue profiting. The only way to ensure that would be through establishing connections with investors,”
“I see. Back to the dinner parties and...galas, is it?” Andrew tries to sound indifferent, hoping that his words don’t come across as harsh and bitter as his churning thoughts.
“High society life isn’t as fun as people make it out to be. If not for business, I’d be avoiding those gatherings completely. Drinking with you is far more entertaining than anything I do at those dinner parties.” Luca laughs, refilling their glasses.
“...Another toast then.”
Andrew returns this one half-heartedly.
The thought of Luca, shining brightly on a stage meant for him, should make him feel happy. For some reason, this doesn’t make Andrew happy at all.
It was under special circumstances—those circumstances being the manor—that had brought the two of them together before. It was the necessary conditions of a twisted game that had allowed them to draw closer to one another. Had it been anywhere else, the bitter truth is that Luca would never have given Andrew a second glance. There is nothing special about him, a shell of a man who shovels corpses.
The way Luca handled himself now, noble and presentable—he always was, even when his riches had been reduced to the rag-tag prison uniform and the electricity flowed spasmodically through his veins—Andrew didn’t doubt he could have anyone he wanted.
He was a fool for thinking that their friendship, as collaborators, would mean anything more.
There is nothing keeping Luca here.
“If only you could see them! So many people flock to those parties, yet most have personalities equating that of drying paint,”
“Surely there must be many admirers there that fancy an inventor like yourself.”
“Fancying me? Well, I’d just disappoint them,” Luca declares proudly, “I only have eyes for my inventions. I can’t imagine loving anything, or anyone, else.”
I love you.
He’s forgotten it now, but Luca had made an exception to this promise at some point. The lousy feeling from before eases up a little bit. It’s extremely petty of him, but Andrew can’t help but fail to suppress a wry laugh at this proclamation. Absurd really, if anyone found out that Luca Balsa, the great inventor, had made an exception to his own promise for the wretched, no-name grave keeper named Andrew Kreiss.
“Why are you laughing? I was being serious, you know.”
“...Sorry. I was reminded of something someone told me a long time ago.”
Now it’s Luca who bursts into laughter. “You usually come off as a serious fellow, I’d never thought we’d be able to enjoy a laugh or two like this. I’m glad, you know that? That I’ve met you, Andrew.”
“Then you must’ve had poor drinking company.” Andrew scoffs, looking away with a reddened face.
“Do enlighten me of your better drinking company then.”
“There’s only one person who’s ever come close,” Andrew murmurs.
Of course Luca wasn’t just a drinking companion to him. He’d meant much more than that. These are disconnected thoughts flowing under drunk pretenses, that never should’ve been brought up in the first place.
“Where are they now?” The Luca in front of him asks.
Andrew grasps the whiskey glass in his hands tightly, staring at his reflection in the liquid. “Well, they’ve forgotten me by now, I suppose.”
“Preposterous! You are the most memorable person I have ever met. How could anyone dare forget you?” Luca exclaims, waving away his words with a few hiccups. “Let me have a word with them. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“It’s not like they had a choice in the matter. For their sake, I’d thought it’d be better for them to. But I’m not sure if that’s what I really wanted. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?”
The grave keeper shakes his head. Here he is, baring his soul with the help of a liquid form of courage. What was he doing with himself?
A clinking noise, then a dragged out silence falls over them. Andrew looks up to see Luca slumped over the table, having fallen asleep at some point during Andrew’s soliloquy.
“H-hey…!”
Andrew plucks the empty glass from hands. They had definitely gone through more whiskey than he’d thought. He shouldn’t leave him here.
“Umph,”
For such a sprightly person, Luca doesn’t weigh much. He sure does sleep a lot better now than he used to. Andrew carries him out of the living room, pausing at the base of the attic entrance.
He thinks he’s beginning to see double on the ladder rungs. The idea of climbing up the ladder to the attic as he is right now isn’t very appealing, doubly so with an unconscious Luca. Andrew sets sights on his own room instead, depositing the brunette on his bed with a grunt.
“Oh, you fool...why bother drinking if your tolerance is so low?”
All Andrew gets in response are a few slurred mumbles. He pulls the covers over Luca, resigning himself to sleeping in the living room armchair for the remainder of the night. The scene in front of Andrew reminds him of the times he’d used to tuck Luca into bed, just like this, after finding him asleep in front of his desk after yet another night of burning the midnight oil. The inventor’s eyelashes flutter in his whiskey-induced sleep.
Again, is the urge to reach out to Luca. He had tried keeping his distance, vowing to not let himself slip up like he did previous. But that self-imposed strictness of Andrew’s wanes now, with God as his only witness tonight. The grave keeper extends an unsightly, pale hand towards the inventor’s sleeping form.
Hesitantly, Andrew lets his fingers graze the edge of Luca’s flushed cheek. The whiskey must’ve gotten him just as inebriated; he can almost swear that he sees a brief look of contentment gracing the other man’s sleeping face.
“How unfair. You’ve come back to me just to leave once more.” Andrew whispers.
Promise me you’ll never leave, Andy?
Then again, he was the one that had broken that promise first. He doesn’t have the right to make him stay.
Since that night, Andrew has made the conscious effort at avoiding Luca as much as possible.
Whether it had been taking on extra shifts at the cemetery or finding excuses for skipping suppers, Andrew had jumped at the opportunity to stay away from the house.
He hadn’t intended on giving the inventor the cold shoulder, not when Luca hasn’t done anything wrong. But he just couldn’t bring himself to look Luca in the eye when all he felt was such cowardice and shame for feeling this way. Just as he’s always been doing, softening the blow of the inevitable with the only way he knows how—by pushing Luca away.
Eventually, the day of Luca’s departure arrives. Faster than Andrew had anticipated, and only remorseful due to his own actions.
He decides to, at the very least, muster the courage to send Luca off with a smile.
“Andrew,”
Luca seems to have been staring off into space, broken out of the spell by Andrew’s approaching footsteps.
The inventor is once again clad in his red ensemble, just like the day they had met among the irises. His bags are packed neatly and he hovers in the doorway to the cottage. His mouth opens and closes, as if deciding on the words, before settling on a small smile.
“Well, I suppose this is it,”
It might just be Andrew’s eyes deceiving him, but it’s almost as if Luca is contemplating on whether he should leave. He’s reluctant to make that kind of hopeful assumption though.
“I suppose it is.” Andrew says.
“I’ll be out of your hair soon, so don’t miss me too much, yeah?” Luca shuffles a bit on his feet. “I wanted to properly thank you for putting up with me this whole time.”
“It wasn’t any trouble at all.”
“You’ve helped with a lot, more than you know. It’s been invaluable for my research. I feel confident in these new patents and the work that I’ll be doing. These are for you—”
Luca rummages through his things, pulling out a thick envelope and what looks like a small black box with a color-coded series of dials.
“These are the payments that I owe you for my stay up until now. Today you can’t refuse them!” Luca shoves the envelope quickly into Andrew’s hands, followed by the box. “And this here, this is a small-scale version of the radio I built,”
“I-I can’t possibly accept this,” Andrew stutters, taken aback by the prospect of the invention in his hands.
“I’d thought of writing letters, but I figured with the distance, well, communications like that would get delayed.” Luca explains.
“We can still keep in touch, even if there’s an ocean between us. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Andrew furls his fingers around Luca’s radio. “...That would be nice.”
“...I’m never really good at these kinds of things. Saying goodbyes, I mean. Especially when there’s still so much left unsaid.”
There’s that unreadable expression on Luca’s face again and a determination in his olive eyes that he hasn’t seen before. The other man pivots on his heels suddenly, walking towards Andrew.
“Luca?”
“I’m sure this might sound strange, Andrew, but I’ve never met anyone like you! Over the past few months I’ve greatly enjoyed your company. Oh, it’s been so delightful spending time with you...so much that I dare believe I’m feeling something more.” The inventor says this with pink tinting his face. ”I’ve spent many nights pondering the possible explanations, and I’ve only reached a possible conclusion recently. How can I describe it? I think I’ve fallen for you,”
Andrew blinks. He must look incredulous, gaping stock-still like a statue, but his reaction only seems to give Luca a renewed vigor to carry on.
“I may be a man, and I know you still have someone in your heart, and I understand if you can’t accept my feelings—”
Andrew sweeps Luca into his arms, letting the other’s words trail off. This is what he’d wanted to do, the moment he’d laid eyes on Luca in the garden. To just hold him tightly and never let go. Would this be enough of an assurance, even if nonverbal?
“—but I just wanted you to know.” Luca looks up from within his embrace with a surprised expression. “Andrew? By this…do you mean...?”
“It’s you. It’s always been you, Luca.” Andrew murmurs boldly into Luca’s hair. He braces himself for rejection, or any of the other possible outcomes running through his head, when Luca’s fingers tangle invitingly into his own pale hair.
It’s far from the first time, but it’s the first time in a long time that Andrew has felt the smooth brush of Luca’s lips against his. He’d missed this. The feeling is natural and not all too different from breathing.
Breathing is still something they very much need to do, though. They eventually part for air.
“Ha...I think this is the first time I’ve done something like that,”
Luca’s face is flushed when he pulls away from Andrew, lips glistening. It’s a funny thing, witnessing such a face from Luca, because it was he who had taught Andrew everything when it came to the art of kissing and expressing love.
God, how could he have ever gotten this lucky, having the love of his life fall in love with someone like him, twice?
“Luca, I...”
Hot tears prick the corners of Andrew’s eyes and before he knows it, they’re trickling down his face in a small stream.
“Andrew? Are you okay?” Luca asks, peering at Andrew with worry in his eyes as the gravekeeper stops to rub the tears away. He leads Andrew by the hand to his bed. “Here, let’s sit for a moment,”
Andrew shakes his head, clasping both of Luca’s hands in his own and bringing them to his lips. “I’m happy. I’m really happy, Luca.”
“Who would’ve thought that a simple kiss would be enough to make you cry,” Luca says with an amused expression.
“Would you believe it, Luca, if I said...that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard those words from you?”
Luca searches Andrew’s eyes as he’s undoubtedly putting two and two together from his words. A smile soon returns to Luca’s face. “What a relief! For a moment there, I’d thought that you were brought to tears because I was a horrendous kisser,”
“If I tell you that I believe you, Andrew, then...” Looking down at their still-joined hands, Luca utters softly, “...Will you help me remember you?”
Andrew feels that words won’t do them justice, so he answers in the only suitable way he can. He takes hold of Luca’s forearm, pressing his lips earnestly against the inside of the other man’s delicate wrist. Making his way gently along the exposed skin of the inventor’s arm, he watches as Luca’s eyes shine with affirmation. Their mouths meet again.
It doesn’t take long for them to fall back into step, like old dance partners taking to a waltz. Both of their actions are laced with need and somehow it’s reassuring for Andrew to know that Luca wants this as much as he does.
Brunette hair loosely spilling out onto the pillow and clothes undone, Luca is a vision to behold.
Andrew’s head dives down to Luca’s chest, taking his time kissing and suckling the skin there with his lips. A small red mark blooms in the spot right above his heart, standing out amongst the network of faded scars. Would Luca realize how close he was to Andrew’s heart every time he viewed this mark? It’s wishful thinking on his part, but the thought excites Andrew just a little bit.
He continues to nip lightly down Luca’s collarbone and the junction between his neck and shoulder, eliciting small gasps of encouragement from the man below him. Soon Andrew feels Luca tugging at his shirt, and smiling into skin at the other’s eagerness, if not a little impatience, discards the rest of their clothes onto the floor.
Andrew has always marveled at how their bodies could fit together so perfectly. It was as if Luca’s body was made for him, and his body made for Luca, and it is a thought he’s always entertained despite the fact that they are both men. Was it God’s design?
Perhaps there is no explanation, other than the fact that it’s Luca—the only person who had ever smiled genuinely at Andrew from the start, whose voice had made his weary heart sing, and whose touch had melted away those longstanding fears and prejudices of his like they were nothing.
He had been an equally eager student of Luca’s when it came to learning how to pleasure him. Andrew has since memorized the places where Luca liked to be touched; knows by heart the exact spot to reach with his fingers that will make Luca’s thighs quiver with need. The location of these places still hold true, and when he pushes those beautiful legs up to slip further inside, he hits the spot that makes Luca’s body clench around him involuntarily. It warrants a flushed expression from the inventor, who seems just as surprised as Andrew with how his body reacted the way it did.
Even if it’s something insignificant, Andrew can’t help but feel a thrill at the possibility of Luca’s body remembering him. That he’d left an impression somehow upon his accepting flesh. He wonders if he can convey, through something as tangible and crude as his touch, what they had meant to each other a long time ago.
Drowning in pleasure, Andrew hears Luca call out his name, over and over again.
The bed made for one is clearly all too small for two and their mess of limbs are crammed hotly together, but Andrew has never felt more at home than now, with Luca in his arms.
“Whenever I’m with you, Andrew, I can’t help but feel as if I’ve forgotten something important all this time. And just now...it’s almost as if my body remembers what my mind has forgot.” At his musing, Luca frowns slightly. “...I’ve forgotten something important, haven’t I? About you. About us. How horrible of me…”
Andrew brushes back the strands sweat-matted hair clinging to Luca’s face gently. “It’s not your fault. You never wanted to forget.”
“To think that all this time you’ve been by my side, yet you didn’t you tell me. Why, Andrew? If I’d left, without ever knowing how you felt, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.”
“The world needs someone like you, Luca. An amazing person who can change it and the lives of those that live in it. You’ve already wasted enough of your time on someone like me,”
Andrew says this with bravado, as if he really would’ve been fine with letting Luca walk away through that cottage door. If things had gone differently, Luca would’ve slipped through his fingers a second time. Except this time, he would’ve left Andrew behind for good, a whole continent away—
“—I don’t think it’s a waste. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with you, Andrew. If this is what I think now, after getting to know you, then this must certainly be what I’ve thought before, when I knew you best.” Luca’s words are brimming with conviction. Andrew finds comfort in them.
“Luca...what about the Americas? If you don’t go through with those patents, then someone else might steal your invention and claim it as their own,”
“It’s entirely possible that scenario could happen. Someone else could absolutely come along and pass those ideas off as their own. I could lose the rights to the patent and the subsequent royalties.” Luca deadpans.
“Then why—”
“Scientific renown and riches are wonderful things to have! But they’re not the reasons why I invent things. I invent because it’s something I love to do, and I want to share them with the world eventually. There are more important things to me than money,”
“You said that the ship sets sail in an hour. If we hurry now, you can still make it,”
“Well...I admit I had originally intended on boarding that ship today. But I have unfinished business. Specifically, you and I still have matters to attend to.” Luca taps a finger against his lip in mock-thought, glancing deliberately in Andrew’s direction. “Whatever should I do with all those bags I’ve packed now?”
Andrew involuntarily tightens his arms around the inventor.
“...If I asked you to stay, would you?”
“It depends on whether we’re talking in theoretical terms or not. Would you ask me to stay? Will you?” Luca’s expression is coy and his response is, if not a little, cheeky.
Andrew decides to interpret it as an invitation. “I’ll ask you now, then. Luca Balsa, will you stay with me?”
“I will, if you’ll have me, Andrew Kreiss.” Luca pulls Andrew close by the neck, their noses just shy of touching. “I’m sure the continent can wait.”
“You’re absolutely making a mistake by being with me,” Andrew laments softly against Luca’s lips.
“Sounds like a mistake I should definitely keep on making then,” He tilts his head, smiling into Andrew’s kisses lazily. “...I did end up purchasing two tickets, you know. I just wasn’t brazen enough in the end to ask you if you would consider,”
Andrew’s eyes widen. “L-Luca! Really, you’re unbelievable sometimes. Of course I would! It’s all a little too sudden, but...”
He’s sure he would drop everything in a heartbeat if Luca were to ask. Knowing that all along, Luca had decided on a future with Andrew by his side—for such an important life step, even— has Andrew’s heart doing somersaults in his ribcage.
“Haha, it’s alright, Andrew. It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask you to uproot your life just for my sake. At such short notice, too.” Luca cups a cool hand on Andrew’s flaming cheek with a light giggle.
“I can invent anywhere. As long as you’re there, Andrew, I can. And right now, you’re here.”
Burning with a quiet affection, Andrew shuffles against Luca’s palm silently. After a few more moments the other man makes a thoughtful sound, withdrawing his hand.
“What I said before, about you helping me remember you—I change my mind. Don’t help me remember.”
“...Oh?” Andrew tries to conceal his disappointment at the loss of Luca’s touch.
“It’s frustrating, not remembering a thing about what we’ve said to each other, or what we’ve done together... so I want to make new memories with you. That way I’ll remember myself! There are things I’ve grown to love about you already, Andrew, and I’m sure I’ll find even more things I’ll love. And I hope that who I am now can live up to who I used to be—Are you crying, Andrew?”
“N-no. I’m not. I’m happy.” Andrew assures, despite being unable to hide his watery eyes and a sniffle. “Luca...you’re still you,”
“Is that a compliment? I’ll consider it one.” Luca laughs, snuggling up against Andrew. “Now that we have all the time in the time in the world, I’d like to be held by you. If that’s alright,”
Andrew nods, his heart feeling full. After all this time he can finally envision a future, and as daunting as it may seem and how undeserving of it he may be—Luca’s right. They have all the time in the world. Another chance to start again.
In Andrew’s arms lies his treasure, and it’s where his heart will forever be.